I blogged the other day about a Leftist friend who dumped me because Trump won and his candidate lost. Even though my views were the same during the years 2008 through 2016, it was apparently okay for him to be friends with me because he was on the winning side. Once he was one the losing side, though, I, along with all the other Trump supporters in his life, suddenly became persona non grata.

What a putz. Good riddance to bad rubbish, because life is too short to spend time with people like that.

What happened to me was nothing, though, compared to the heartrending tweets Paul Joseph Watson received when he asked people to let him know if they have been shunned because they are Trump supporters:

The difference with my situation is that almost my entire family became conservative when I did and joined me in being Trump supporters. Also, when we became conservative, the fact that we’re decent human beings meant that we continued to engage in all ways with the few family holdouts who cling to their Progressivism. We may all be frustrated with each other, but family matters more.

This kind of searing, personal division often precedes Civil Wars. In both the 17th Century English Civil War and the 19th Century American Civil War, “brother against brother” was not just a hackneyed phrase. It was a very real thing. Indeed, both Presidents Grant and Lincoln were married to women who came from slave-holding, Confederate-supporting families.

The only quibble I have with Watson is that he hurls ad hominem insults directly at the Leftist who proudly exposed Pamela Geller’s children to attack. She certainly deserves to be held to account, but I would focus on her conduct, rather than insulting her personally, although insulting her is viscerally satisfying. What a Leftist would say is that, by exposing America to the great evil that is Trump, we are morally just as bad as someone who exposes only one or two children to evil. Therefore, if Watson can insult one Leftist, why can’t they insult all Trump supporters? There are several fallacies with this line of argument, but on this it’s easier to hold the high ground and simply say that her conduct is disgusting, revolting, and immoral, rather than saying that she is disgusting, revolting, and immoral.

A note re the photo illustrating this post: My post photo is a screen shot from an article in Harper’s Bazaar that Watson included in the video when he rightly excoriated the media for inflaming familial divisions (something I believe is a symptom of civil war). Ironically, Harper’s Bazaar started in 1867, right after America’s own bloody, horrible, destructive Civil War.

Harper’s was never a deeply intellectual magazine (it’s a fashion magazine), but I can assure you that it’s only in modern times that an article in Harper’s would have the tooth-grinding grammatical error we see in the title: “If you are married to a Trump supporter, divorce them [sic].” As the title’s poor formatting shows, this grammatical error is not a response to space constraints. It’s because the Progressives in charge are so terrified of giving gender offense, that they can’t even imagine an alternative way to frame the title.

If I were to write that kind of vicious blather, the title I would give the article would be “If you are married to a Trump supporter, divorce your spouse.” Alternatively, “If you are married to a Trump supporter, you need a divorce.” Or alternatively, “Time to divorce the Trump supporter in your marriage.”

Alternatively, if the article is aimed at polygamists, the title should read as follows: “If you are married to Trump supporters, divorce them.” (There! Fixed it.)